“Future generations are going to look at the way we make toilet paper as one of the greatest excesses of our age. Making toilet paper from virgin wood is a lot worse than driving Hummers in terms of global warming pollution.” Making toilet paper has a significant impact because of chemicals used in pulp manufacture and cutting down forests.

That’s almost 2,000 times the energy needed to produce the same amount of tap water. On top of the energy requirements, the authors estimated that the energy cost to solely produce the bottles is equal to the energy equivalent of 50 millions barrels of oil per year. They also found that companies rarely use recycled plastic, since almost all bottles used “virgin” plastic.

To lead the office, Obama appointed Joshua DuBois, a 26-year-old Pentecostal minister who headed religious outreach for Obama’s Senate office and his presidential campaign. He also named 25 religious and secular leaders to a new advisory board.

Obama said the office would also work to reach out overseas “to foster interfaith dialogue with leaders and scholars around the world.”

…

“I had a father who was born a Muslim but became an atheist, grandparents who were non-practicing Methodists and Baptists, and a mother who was skeptical of organized religion, even as she was the kindest, most spiritual person I’ve ever known. She was the one who taught me as a child to love, and to understand, and to do unto others as I would want done,” he said.

Opponents of the bill complain that the tobacco tax increase hits the poor the hardest, because they are more likely to smoke than wealthier people are. Many also took exception to expanding the program and Medicaid to children of newly arrived legal immigrants.

“The decisions that were made by a prior administration were difficult ones. It is an easy thing for somebody to look back in hindsight and be critical of the decisions that were made,” Holder said. “Having said that, the president-elect and I are both disturbed by what we have seen and what we have heard.”

An outfit calling itself the iPhone Dev Team released a free piece of software called “yellowsnOw” that allows subscribers to use the device on any wireless network running the same technical standards.

Apple declined to comment on the new software. AT&T says use of the unauthorized software would void the phone’s warranty, the Wall Street Journal reports.

During an interview in Sadr City, a brother of Muntader al-Zaidi’s, Maythem al-Zaidi, 28, said Muntader had been offered representation, free, by more than 100 lawyers from around the world, including one who had represented Saddam Hussein.

In Damascus, a 34-year-old shop owner, who gave his name only as Muhammad, said he was on his way to celebrate the shoe-throwing incident with friends.

“This is like a holiday,” he said. “This is just what we needed for revenge.”

Finds officer Rachel Cubbitt realized the skull might contain a brain when she felt something move inside the cranium as she was cleaning it, Hall said. She looked through the skull’s base and spotted an unusual yellow substance inside. Scans at York Hospital confirmed the presence of brain tissue.